The Power of Touch – Healing With Reiki

My mother was a healer before healers were mainstream. She always believed in the power of touch to heal, including massaging the feet (now referred to as Reflexology), to promote healing in whatever organ in the body needed it. I am sure you had a mother or grandmother who would rub your back with alcohol when you had a fever or laid their hands on you when you were sick. It made you feel so loved and cared for and actually made you feel better. Your mother and grandmother were ahead of their time and, probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that science is proving what they knew in their heart would heal your ills. It is referred to as Reiki. There are other forms of energy healing but I want to focus on Reiki since I am a Reiki practitioner and have experienced healing with patients using Reiki.

Many years ago before I trained to become a Reiki practitioner, I had never even heard of Reiki. I decided to go for acupuncture for an earache and tinnitus that I was experiencing. I had gone the conventional route but all the doctors wanted to do was give me steroids. When I told them I wasn’t comfortable taking them he proceeded to tell me I would go deaf if I didn’t take them. I took prednisone for 7 days and it totally threw me out of balance. It made me so hyper, and then so exhausted. It ruined my appetite and made me feel like my skin was crawling, not to mention it didn’t heal my earache. Needless to say that doctor was history. I then turned to acupuncture which helped me when I had a pinched nerve in my neck. I always loved eastern medicine and knew that conventional means weren’t working for me. The acupuncturist also turned out to be a Reiki Master. After my acupuncture treatment she gave me a Reiki treatment. As she had her hands over my ears they became really hot and the ringing stopped. I also felt such a wave of calm because if any of you have experienced tinnitus it’s very distracting, and feels like you have a mosquito in your ear all the time. I continued to go for sessions once per week for about 6 weeks. The tinnitus disappeared, never to return again. I believe the combination of Reiki and acupuncture helped me heal.

So what is Reiki? As you probably can guess, Reiki is a wonderful Japanese hand on healing technique. It is used to promote healing in a non-invasive way. It is the channeling of energy and is administered by laying your hands on the body or over a specific area that is in distress. The practitioner is not guiding Reiki. Reiki is just being channeled through the practitioner to the recipient. It was discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui in the early 1900’s. Dr. Usui had miraculous results healing patients with Reiki. The word Reiki comes from 2 Japanese words…rei and ki. Rei means spiritual or higher power consciousness and ki (which is the same as chi in Chinese or prana in Hindu) means life energy or universal life force. As long as something is alive, it has life energy flowing through it. If your life energy becomes depleted that is when you are vulnerable to getting sick. For example, if you have a clogged drain, you must clear it so the water can go down, flow smoothly and not back up. If you don’t, the drain clog gets worse and you have bigger problems. It’s the same with your energy that flows through your body. We have seven energy centers called Chakras that run in a straight line from the bottom of our spine to the top of our head. If any of them are blocked, illness (mental or physical) can occur. This is why it’s so important to keep the channels clear so Reiki energy can freely flow through them. So many things can deplete your life energy and cause energy blockages, especially during these difficult economic times. Stress is a part of life and always will be. It is your response to it that makes the difference. Reiki will help since it is both powerful and gentle. In addition to promoting healing where you need it, it can relax and calm you and reduce stress.

It’s great to try something new. With every new experience you learn something new whether it be about yourself, something or someone else. Never close your mind or judge something negatively before exploring the possibilities. Leave all possibilities room to blossom by being open to them.